The Ashes of Time

Chapter 3

            Chess Delvingson sits on his plain white bed in his small room as he looks at his small gold antique pocket watch. It has a pale, shiny surface with a black number on each of the four principle edges and a black line marking the other intermediary hours. The ghost of a green flame flickers around the edge of the tick for seven o'clock as the hour hand swerves around the display twice and then towards the number, indicating 3100. The minute hand swirls around the display once and then stops three-fifths of the way towards the first tick, indicating 63. Together, they indicate the year 3163. The green indicates that there is a pestilence and the flame indicates a fire.

Chess is a time master who tracks 'disturbances,' unusual suffering caused by supernatural creatures, most commonly demons or undead, who take advantage of the zombie apocalypse predicted in a few years. He developed his time traveling ship after his mother gave him her pocket watch. She had seen the coming apocalypse in a dream even as she fought against a powerful demon that had eventually killed her. Chess's father had always told him that his mother had strayed from the path of good and had invoked the demon, but his mother had assured him that it had left, after telling him about her dream. She asserted that she saw an angel that would take her to a better world.

Chess had since travelled to 2240 and helped a group of angels stop the zombies from taking over a small community under the angels' protection. In return, they had injected his android companion, Sera, with a small amount of blood to animate her and give her the artificial intelligence to feel emotions.

Sera straightens from the wall opposite him, a dark look flickering through her grey eyes as he glances up at her. "It is a demon," she tells him calmly. She is connected to an extensive network of computers, including some in the future, which give her a vast database on knowledge. However, her database is limited to information available on the internet that is not restricted by the future's more restrictive servers. She can also usually only connect with the future's servers if she is in the future or if Chess's watch creates a connection with it. Because the disturbance involves a demon, it is high priority, and Chess must go to the future soon, but he must first tell his father and younger sister that he is leaving.

His sister sits at the dining room table in a black taffeta dress and black net gloves. As she looks up, her wavy brownish-blonde hair shifts behind her. Her grey eyes come together as they analyze Sera's frame. "You are not leaving already?" She draws her small pale hands together as she stretches them out in front of her.

"It is important," he responds, and then smiling slightly adds, "but I will be back soon."

"You ought to be back instantly," Mr. Delvingson comments, entering the room from the kitchen. He wears a stiff black suit and tie with his short greying hair combed neatly. His brown eyes sparkle dangerously as he crosses his arms. That's not how it works, Chess thinks exasperatedly. It is not possible to gain time by travelling through it. I can only go to the specific time I am called to, and while I am not there, the time passes in that other period. "Better yet, you could not leave at all. Tell me again why the future needs you to help it? Everything happens in time, and it is our place to do what we can in our own time, not tangle with this dark magic."

Chess has tried to explain it to his father before, but his father never believes him. He is not sure if his father even believes him that he has time-travelled, but then his father also has a strict view of what is right and wrong. Time travel is in his view wrong, so, regardless of the purpose, it is wrong.

"Mother—," he begins in his usual attempt to explain his reasoning to his father even though he knows it is futile.

"Do not speak to me of her," his father's voice carries a hint of sadness and hurt although his face remains impassive. "She was possessed."